MISSOULA — Chalk it up as the 10th year in a row that the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation registered record membership.

As of Dec. 31, 2018, RMEF had 234,982 members, marking a 3.2-percent membership increase from 2017.

2018 highlights:

— Opened/improved public access to 26,556 acres in five states

— Enhanced 134,699 acres of wildlife habitat in 27 states

— Permanently protected 13,431 acres of habitat across eight states

— Provided funding/volunteer manpower to assist with West Virginia elk restoration

— Surpassed 12,000 volunteers who raised a record single-year amount of revenue to advance RMEF’s conservation mission

— Provided $715,671 in funding to benefit ongoing elk research and studies

— Advocated Congress and state legislatures for many issues including forest management reform, Land and Water Conservation Fund reauthorization, Great Lakes states wolf delisting, Yellowstone area grizzly delisting, wildfire funding and more

— Participated in victorious court cases benefitting forest management and wildlife habitat management

— Reached 84.5 million people via its social media platforms, had 822,634 followers & more than 12.8 million video views

— Totaled more than 5 million combined page views on rmef.org and elknetwork.com

“2018 was an incredible year for RMEF on all fronts. We look forward to celebrating these latest accomplishments and others at our 2019 Elk Camp and Mountain Festival,” added Weaver.